Daily life of a cultivation judge



Harmony Well Pavilion, second floor

"This is quite the surprise you called me to, Ren Shu.."

Ren Shu, who had been analyzing the bead he took from Yang Qing's hands, had turned toward the entrance of the second floor where a young lady appeared.

She looked about twenty years old, had light purple hair, and pink cherry blossom eyes with petal flowers and red-blue flames swirling around them. Her eyes seemed to contain an insatiable curiosity in them.

She wore a simple white flower patterned sleeveless dress and was bare feet and a beauty that looked like it had taken hundreds of thousands of years to create.

Everything about her was vivacious.

"Well, I figured you might enjoy something like this 'valley master'.." said Ren Shu with an easygoing and teasing smile.

"Seems like someone has grown some cheeky spine off late for him to tease his wife like that. I wonder if I should take a page from Meimei and have you go into a 50-year seclusion. It's about time you made that jump to the soul formation realm, you already have the necessary foundations, what do you think 'dear'.." said the young lady with a smile that wasn't exactly a smile.

"Ahem Ru'er please be kind besides if I leave for seclusion, then all the work you've been avoiding in lieu of conducting your experiments, will all fall on you now, dear.." 

"Fine, you win.." said the young lady who was the valley master of the Medicine Valley, Fan Ru. 

The grounds the Medicine Valley made had all been ushered by her. Over the years since its foundation she has researched and formulated countless recipes that went on to save countless lives, innovated over a dozen medical techniques that could deal with myriad of diseases the Valley would deal with, and was one of the main figures who pioneered ecological succession among spiritual herbs and their environment to achieve climax community, where they could support and maintain each other, without one trying to outdo the other.

She and a few elders of the valley, with Ren Shu included helped find a way to perfectly mend cracked dantians, something that was once considered impossible to remedy.

She was a purple-grade herbologist, which could only be gained by one who could successfully cultivate a saint-grade spiritual plant, had equal matching skills in alchemy, and was steadily raising her medical techniques to reach the level of her herbology and alchemy skills.

Her presence in the Medicine Valley and to the Order as a whole was instrumental to its ability to reach where it is today. However, for months on end, she would neglect most of her duties as the Valley Master whenever she found something interesting to research. She was the type to put her hobbies in front of her job.

Some of the research she went on an unhinged binge on, bore some fruit, but most, were usually useless, like trying to research if certain plants could produce sap that could alter the saliva properties of a spirit beast, and so on and so forth, leaving the valley rudderless most of the time, especially in the early years.

Luckily, Ren Shu came along, who though didn't have her skills when it came to alchemy since she had an innate advantage because of her Yuan bloodline, which gave her an abnormal level of fire control, and innate detection of the property changes, he did match her skills in herbology and medicine, more so the latter.

He already had the qualifications to be a purple-grade physician which meant, he could heal soul formation experts, however, what was holding him back was his cultivation base. Even though he knew how to heal them, his own abilities couldn't keep up with his knowledge, but the moment he broke through to the soul formation realm, his abilities would finally be at the same level as his knowledge.

With his skills, he was able to hold the reigns of the Medicine Valley and in some regard, most saw him as the real Valley Master, since he guided new physicians, was always there whenever he was needed, and his knowledge and skills were revered by both old and young.

..

Just as Ren Shu was sighing at what a handful his wife was, he saw her suddenly laugh as she was looking at Yang Qing.

"For someone who hates working, this little whelp sure worked a lot this time. The transformation he brought seems to have even affected the natural formation encompassing this area.

In a few thousand years, I doubt this would be a true blessed ground of healing, we won't even need to have healers here. They could just be thrown here, and they'd get better..." 

She went on to laugh some more and even poked Yang Qing's cheeks as she teased him despite Yang Qing being presently unconscious.

Ren Shu despite trying to hold himself back, found himself smiling alongside her.

"Luckily the backlash from the ability he used wasn't severe, otherwise it would be a pity for the Valley and the Order.." she said with her face suddenly turning serious.

She placed her hand on Yang Qing's glabella as a small red-blue flame rune appeared. Green smoke was instantly released from Yang Qing's forehead.

Her pupils fluttered with a look of surprise.

"So that's how he survived the backlash. Mmph, what a lucky kid, even the green cocoon helped him.." she muttered with clear envy in her tone.

"This looks to have been the trigger for all of it..." Ren Shu said with an austere expression as he handed the bead to her.

"The object inside is a fern, but its body seems to have been made from the threads of the golden thread tree that had been mixed in with the sanguine heart vine, and by its quality, it looks to have been at the peak of the ascendant grade...

From the trace energy left, it seems to have originated from that boy's body.." Ren Shu said as he pointed toward the seventeen-year-old boy that Yang Qing had approached.

"But what is something like this doing in him? He doesn't have a special physique or background that would draw the attention of someone capable of engineering such a plant.." he added

"Mmmh, I've never seen something like this before. The level of technique of combining the two plants should at the very least require the skills of top-tier gold-grade alchemists who are inches away from the door of the purple grade, though I think they're more than likely at the purple grade and they have considerable resources at that.

Getting your hands on a golden thread tree isn't something just anyone can get since it's born with saint-grade abilities from the onset, and its karmic abilities are nothing to scoff at.."

She paused as her eyebrows rose up.

"There are numerous arrays mixed in, mmh, I can't seem to recognize some of them. Linking array, self-destruct array, cloaking array, alarming array. The kid's technique seemed to have sealed them in a way the one who put them there wouldn't know this.

I had he was skilled with arrays but this? it seems there is a lot we don't know about the jade physiques..." A glint of crazed excitement flashed in her eyes as she said this.

Ren Shu shook his head sideways when he saw this. It was an all too familiar scene. She was about to throw herself into another research for an indefinite period of time.

However, he too was now intrigued by the peerless jade physiques, especially when he saw the changes around him.

"It looks like they have a self-protection mechanism of some sort, just like those with contractual bloodlines from powerful spirit beasts, which have their sentient will embedded in them..."

"Mmh, I wonder if he will remember the trigger, but with the level of power he released, to protect his mind, I doubt he will.." said the valley master.

"This plant is too strange. Send that boy to the special inquisitors and have them investigate if there is anything strange with his background, while I take this to the spirit council.

This thing seems less like a plant, and more like a weapon.." she added as she prepared to leave.

"What about Yang Qing and the rest?" Ren Shu said with an exasperated smile.

"Well you're the acting valley master dear, deal with it.." the valley master said with a cheeky smile as she disappeared.

"Figures.." Ren Shu muttered to himself as he shook his head.

"Oh, that whelp should be up in three days, I'll be back then. You can take him to our abode, and have his grandfather there too.." 

Ren Shu waved his hand, and all the sleeping medical valley workers got lined up neatly together in a single file.

When he was done, he bent over to pick Yang Qing up.

"I wonder if we should rename this pavilion after you now, Yang Qing. Knowing him, he is bound to demand it along with trying to scam some compensation from the Order and us...Luckily the lotus lily heart seeds are about to be formed, which should take care of our 'debt'...

Always a handful.." he muttered to himself with a smile as he disappeared from the pavilion, leaving it in its tranquil state.

Those left behind were not in any danger and were fast asleep, and sleeping in that environment created by whatever Yang Qing did, was a blessing for them. Their bodies and souls were continuously being transformed and nourished by the changes in the pavilion caused by Yang Qing, and they would likely continue to reap those rewards even after years had passed by.